The Marlins made the first of what figure to be a week's worth of tough decisions Tuesday, optioning big-armed reliever Arquimedes Caminero to Triple-A New Orleans.

Based on his major league debut last September and his Grapefruit League numbers this month, Caminero seemed like a safe bet to open the season in the Marlins' bullpen. A shell-shocked Caminero said the Marlins told him they were happy with his performance, but they didn't specify a reason for the demotion.

"What can you do?" Caminero said. "Keep working to come back up. It looks like I needed a little more, to work a little more."

He was promoted for the first time last September and in 13 appearances spanning 13 innings logged a 2.77 ERA with three walks and 12 strikeouts. His fastball averaged 94.6 mph, according to Fangraphs. This spring he walked one and struck out nine in seven Grapefruit League appearances (nine innings) with a 2.00 ERA.

"To look him in the eye and tell him he was going down was a difficult conversation," President of Baseball Operations Michael Hill said. "With Caminero, it's just more of a consistency thing. He came up and we just want to continue building on his success. He had a great September and it carried over into a great spring. We want him to continue it down in Triple-A and when the need arises we know we have a major league-ready reliever to come back."